And Waterboarding is Just Like Floating on Your Back

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly (who is apparently now a chemical expert) said Monday night on O'Reilly that the pepper spray used against demonstrators at the University of California at Davis last week was "a food product, essentially."  I'm sure it tastes delicious.

Actually, Professor/Dr. Megyn ('cuz in TV-land, we call all doctors by their first names, right?), this Scientific American blog piece is pretty clear: U.S. Pepper Spray is not a food product.  It is about 1,000 times hotter than a jalapeño pepper, and about 10-20 times hotter than the hottest of cooking peppers, the habanero.

Health hazards of pepper spray are highlighted in the piece like this:

Depending on brand, [pepper] spray may contain water, alcohols, or organic solvents as liquid carriers; and nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or halogenated hydrocarbons (such as Freon, tetrachloroethylene, and methylene chloride) as propellants to discharge the canister contents.(3) Inhalation of high doses of some of these chemicals can produce adverse cardiac, respiratory, and neurologic effects, including arrhythmias and sudden death.

But whooooooeeeeeeeeeey! It sure tastes good on my nachos!

This is a military grade weapon, NOT a food topping.  Whoops, gotta link to the classic SNL classic sketch about Shimmer Floor Wax: